1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention generally relate to a method and apparatus for injecting errors into memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to develop and validate complex error handling and error recovery software (SW), SW vendors, such as, operating systems (OS) vendors, virtual machine managers (VMM), etc., desire a simple interface that can inject errors to a given system address for software testing.
In present implementations, there is not a simple interface that can be used for injecting errors into memory. Instead, complex methods are utilized that involve basic input/output system (BIOS) utilization and designed for testing (DFx) error injection mechanisms, which are used to effect the error injection.
Unfortunately, these methods are complex and include many design problem issues associated with each product to be tested. Further, these methods are typically non-portable because they have to be “re-invented” for each product to be tested. For example, a given system address has to be translated into a memory address (since DFx mechanisms work with memory addresses) and they may also require help from microcode to unlock certain capabilities that were meant to be used only for a particular product to be tested.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to utilize a simple interface for injecting errors to test a product.